Match-box.



H. V. BURANDT.

MATCH BOX.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 29.1917- 1,259,484. Patented Man-19,1918.

F/G-i W/ NEsstrs nni'rn HENRY V. BURANDT, 0F MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA.

MATCH-BOX.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 19, 1918.

Application filed June 29, 1917. Serial No. 177,742.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY V. BURANDT, a citizen of the United States, resident of lvlinneapoliacounty of Hennepin, State of Minnesota, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Match-Boxes, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention is to provide a box in which a quantity of matches may be placed and delivered one at a time to the user.

A further and particular object is to provide a device of this kind which is extremely simple in construction and will be inexpensive to manufacture and maintain, all springs and similar devices liable to break or get out of order being entirely dispensed with.

The invention consists generally in various constructions and combinations, all as hereinafter described and particularly pointed out in the claim.

In the accompanying part of this specification,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a match box embodying my invention,

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view, through the box, showing the normal position of the operating mechanism,

Fig. 3 is a sectional view showing the manner of picking up and delivering a match,

Fig. A is a plan view of the device, with part of the cover broken away,

Fig. 5 is a sectional view on the line 5-5 of Fig. 2.

In the drawing, 2 represents a suitable casing in which the operating mechanism is mounted. A hinged plate 3 secured by a lock 4 is provided through which access may be had to the interior of the casing for supplying it with matches. 5 is an inclined feed plate mounted within the casing on which the matches are loosely placed and allowed to roll or slide down thereon by gravity. 6 is a rotating wheel, centrally pivoted in the walls of the casing at 7 and provided with a finger grip 8 on the outside of the casing, by means of which the wheel may be rocked or rotated to pick up a match. The periphery of the wheel is provided with a transverse slot 9 that is adapted to receive the match stick and on each side of this slot the wheel is rabbeted or cut away forming recesses, as indicated at 10 in Fig. 5. The purpose of having these recesses in drawings forming the face of the wheel is two-fold, first, it

allows the head of the match to extend beyond the face of the wheel and does not permit it to interfere in any way with the en trance of the sticln into the slot 9 and the proper picking up of the match. Obviously, if the slot were extended the full width of the wider part of the wheel, the irregular shaped match head might catch in the slot or be too large to enter-therein and interfere with the working of the wheel. By cutting away the face of the Wheel on both sides, this difficulty is avoided, as the match stick is generally of uniform size and will slip into the slot easily, so that a match will be picked up with certainty with every rotation of the wheel.

A further and particular purpose of having these side recesses or rabbets in the wheel is to take away a portion of the weight of the wheel on one side of its axis so that it will be over-balanced by the weight on the other side and normally assume the position shown in Fig. 2, and as soon as the user has rotated the wheel sufiiciently to move the slot 9 to a point under the matches, the wheel, upon being released, will automatically return by gravity to the position shown in Fig. 2, raising the match to a point where it can be reached through the opening 11 in the top of the casing. I prefer to provide a stop 12 in the bottom of the casing and pins 13 and 1A in the periphery of the wheel to engage the stop and limit the rotation of the wheel in both directions. I am aware that match boxes of somewhat similar construction have been heretofore made, but they have been equipped with springs or weighted in such a manner that considerable expense has been added to the device, while in my improved box I merely remove a portion of the face of the wheel on one side of the center to allow the greater weight on the opposite side to normally rock the wheel back from the point where it picks up the match to the point of delivery. I thereby economize in the first cost of the device and simplify its construction. I further add to the certainty of picking up the match by providing a recess in which only the stick portion of the match will be received.

I claim as my invention:

A match box comprising a casing and an inclined feed plate mounted therein on which the loose matches are placed, a feed wheel mounted to rotate in said casing and having stops for limiting its degree of rotation, the vertical faces of said feed Wheel being recessed on one side-ofthe axis thereof form'- ing a comparatively narrow peripheral face on one side of the center of said Wheel, said narrow face having a transverse slot therein a adapted to receive a match stick While the head of the match projects outside said slot into the recess in one face of the Wheel, the top of saidcasing having an opening therein, one of said stops being positioned to allow said Wheel to rotate by gravity until said "slot is normally opposite the opening in said casing, the other stop permitting said of the discharge end "of said feed plate to receive a match therefrom, said Wheel having a finger grip for operating it to its pickup position that part of said Wheel on the other side of its axis from said recess'edface's overloalancing said recessed portion and causing said Wheel to normally assume its match-delivering :position.

In Witness whereoffl have hereunto set my hand this26th day of June 1917.

HENRY V. BURANDT.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. 0. 

